Just-in-Time Was Never Just About Inventory
Have you ever noticed how a team can be busy all day, yet important work barely moves? During my time at Toyota, I learned that producing more doesn’t necessarily mean creating more value. When one part of a process works faster than the next can handle, work piles up. Everyone looks productive, but the overall […]
Customer Retention Strategies: Why Your Clients’ Changing Needs Matter More Than You Think
A client who’s been with your company for two years isn’t the same client you signed two years ago. Their business has evolved. Their priorities have shifted. But has your service evolved with them? One place to start is by examining how information moves between your teams. My free Streamlining Handoffs Guide can help you […]
The Work Your Leaders Should Stop Doing: How to Delegate Ownership, Not Just Tasks
I came across a line recently that made me stop: If everything needs your attention, what actually deserves your attention? It’s an interesting question for leaders because being busy can look a lot like being essential. Your calendar is full. People want your opinion. Decisions keep coming your way. But at some point, that stops […]
What Toyota Taught Me About Kaizen: Why “Continuous Improvement” Misses the Point
For years, I’ve heard Kaizen translated into two words: continuous improvement. It’s not exactly wrong. But after working as a Kaizen Leader at Toyota, I learned that those two words leave out one of the most important parts: improvement isn’t just about making the process better. It’s about developing people who know how to make […]
Connected Before Intelligent: Why Systems Integration Must Precede AI
In the first week of September, industry insiders were warning that AI could pose an existential threat. At the same time, another conversation was gaining momentum: Should we deliberately slow it down? Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has argued for “pacing the frontier,” raising a bigger question about whether AI capabilities are advancing faster than our […]
The Expense No One Puts on the P&L
A leader once told me she had to review nearly every important decision her team made. Not because her team wasn’t capable. It had simply become how the business operated. One extra check became another approval. One mistake created another safeguard. Eventually, leadership oversight was built into the process. That’s the part of trust we […]
How to Make Yourself Less Necessary (Without Losing Control of Your Company)
“I didn’t come here to do this.” A client said this to me recently as we started talking about some of the operational problems inside her company. She wasn’t being resistant. She was exhausted. She went on: “It changes so much, it’s hard to keep up. And I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep […]
The Risk of Waiting to Change
There is a sentence I hear from leadership teams all the time: “We know this needs to change. We’re just not ready yet.” On the surface, that sounds responsible. Maybe you’re waiting until Q1, until after the next hire, until you finish implementing a new system, or until things calm down and you have more […]
Stop Handing Out COO Titles: What a COO Is Actually Responsible For
There’s a pattern I’m seeing more and more in growing companies. They don’t know what to call the person handling operations. So they give them a bigger title. Director of Operations. VP of Operations. Head of Operations. Integrator. Sometimes even COO. The problem is that a lot of these people aren’t actually doing those jobs. […]
Q4 Planning: 6 Operational Trends I’m Watching as We Head Into Q4
I took some space this summer. A lot of people I work with took some space. Summer happened. Vacations happened. Kids were out of school. Calendars got weird. And now we’re hitting that point in the year where everyone comes back, opens their laptop, looks at the calendar, and has the same realization: Oh. We […]
